1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a carrier for a two-component developer, a two-component developer, an image forming method, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
A method of visualizing image information through an electrostatic latent image, for example, an electrophotographic process, is currently applied to various fields of art. In the electrophotographic process, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a surface of a photoconductor (image holding member) through charging, exposing and the like, and the electrostatic image is developed with a developer containing a toner, and then visualized through transferring, fixing and the like.
The developer used herein includes a two-component developer containing a toner and a carrier, and a one-component toner containing a toner solely, such as a magnetic toner. Among these, the two-component developer has such characteristics as good controllability and the like owing to the function separation, in which the carrier bears functions including stirring, transportation, charging and the like of the developer, and thus is currently spread widely.